Wednesday, August 31, 2016

Here we go! The second week of half marathon training! This week 8 miles was on the schedule!

It was also the end of the first week of school so I wasn't sure how much energy I was going to have for this run lol! I totally forgot to map out a route the night before. So I basically just started running and let the miles lead me!

The temperature was 74 degrees and it was 95% humidity so it was pretty hot and steamy.

I made sure to run a slower pace than normal. I wanted to be around the 9 minute mile mark.

The sun was starting to rise when I started my run. I love watching the sunrise!

The first mile felt great! I got into a good rhythm and pace. And I enjoyed my surroundings!

I made it to the end of the road where I usually turn around.

But since I didn't have a route I decided to make a left on that road and run a couple of neighborhoods that I hadn't run in awhile.

That road was a busy 4 lane highway but luckily it was early in the morning so there wasn't a ton of traffic.

I made it into my first neighborhood and did the big loop in there. The sun was just starting to show! It was gorgeous!!!!

I left that neighborhood and ran in the one next door. The best part....I was feeling so great! Once I left that neighborhood I headed back towards home. But last minute I decided to run the big loop in the first neighborhood again. I really wasn't sure about the mileage since I hadn't made a route.

Then I finally made it back onto the road that lead home.

I checked my Garmin and knew I couldn't head home yet. I still had some mileage to run. So I took a left and headed to a tiny one street neighborhood. That was just what I needed to run and make my mileage!

Before I knew it I was headed home and I had made it 8 miles! And...I could have kept going if I needed to! Yay!!!!

I was pretty close to negative splits for each mile! That made me happy!

I'm super thankful that slowing down has made me start to enjoy my long runs again!

QOTD: Do you prefer to map out a route or just go where the run takes you?

Monday, August 29, 2016

This weekend was spent recovering from the first week of school! And then getting ready for the next week of school! It's a never-ending cycle lol!

Friday after school my co-worker Allison and I went to Starbucks for our celebratory "we survived the first week of school" frappuccino!

Later that afternoon Sawyer left with friends to go to a birthday party at an indoor trampoline place. He had an absolute blast! Andy, Hayden, and I headed to the Brendel's house for a celebratory first week of school survival pizza dinner! And then some Mexican train dominoes. It was a fun night!

Saturday morning I woke early and got in an 8 mile run for half marathon training! I will tell you more about my run on Wednesday!

I came home and got showered and had my breakfast and coffee. While eating Archie came and got into his crate all on his own and laid down! I think he may be starting to like it a little bit!

He also enjoyed several naps on the couch this weekend!! :-)

Here's another Archie pic....just because he's so cute!!!

Andy and Hayden were attending a Boy Scout event all morning and part of the afternoon. So Sawyer and I went out for lunch, went to the pet store, and grocery shopped for this week! Fun times lol!

When Andy and Hayden got home we all went out for some frozen yogurt!

The next morning I asked Archie if he wanted to go for a run with me. He got so excited and gave me a hug so I took that as a yes! He did great on the run! We still need to work on turns and not wanting to stop and smell and meet every person that walks or runs by. Luckily he doesn't try to smell and pee on everything during the run. He runs right beside me...unless he sees another person and then he wants to be their friend. We've got to work on this but hopefully he will get it soon. I'm loving having him as a running buddy!

Now it's time for the Weekly Chase! It's a new week and I have new goals to achieve! I hope you will link up your own goals with me too! And feel free to use the badge below in your post too! You can grab the badge HERE! :-)

Here are my goals from last week!

Goal #1: Run every day! Yes! I got up early and got my run in before school. It was tough getting up so early but I have to get back into the routine!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. 50%. I'm not where I need to be with this but I'm trying. Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories. Yes! But I will admit I ate too much leftover cake from Sawyer's birthday this week. Luckily my runs and walks balanced it out.Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week. Yes! It was tougher to get in all my steps now that I'm back at work. But I did it!Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles. No. I still ran a little over 2 miles every day. I need to run at least one run under 2 miles each week as a recovery day. It's just so hard because I get out there and feel so good!Goal #6: Take at least one walk this week. Yes! I've taken several walks with Archie this week!Goal #7: Strength train at least 2 times this week. Yes! Yay!

Goal #8: Survive the first week of school and getting back into a routine. Yes! It was tough but we did it!

Goal #9: Make Sawyer's birthday as special as I can considering it's on the first day of school. Yes! He got to go out to eat, open presents, FaceTime with family, and eat cake!

Here are my goals for this week!

Every week goals:

Goal #1: Run every day!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories.Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week.Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles.Goal #6: Take at least one walk this week.Goal #7: Strength train at least 2 times this week.

Goal #8: Get my calendar completed for parents at school.Can you believe it's almost September? I need to get my calendar done to give to my students' parents.

Goal #9: Get Cullen and Archie's flea medicine. Silly to put this goal on here but if I write it down it will help me remember to get this done! It's time for their monthly flea preventative.

So that's my goals for this week! Good luck with your goals this week too!

Friday, August 26, 2016

I'm so glad it's Friday! It's been a great week back to school...but this preschool teacher is exhausted y'all!!!

Monday was the first day of school! I had a great first day with my pre-k 4 class! I'm so very blessed to work with some amazing teachers!!!

My boys also had a great first day of school! I can't believe I have a 6th and 4th grader now! They are growing up way too fast!

Not only was it the first day of school...but it was also Sawyer's 9th birthday! Most kids would not like that but he was excited since he loves school! He started that morning with chocolate chip waffles! It's tradition for us to have a birthday candle in our breakfast!

Later that evening he got to open his presents! Then we went to eat dinner at his choice (Moe's Southwest Grill) with friends! Then it was cake at home! Sweet boy wanted a white cake with chocolate icing but he wanted me to make half of the icing vanilla since his brother doesn't like chocolate. So sweet!

Tuesday was another first day of school for me with my pre-k 2 class! 2 year olds are so exhausting and I came home with quite the headache lol! But first I made sure to go vote for our city mayor!

I got to destress some that night with a good workout at the gym with my hubby!

Wednesday I had a pretty good day but the early wake ups were starting to get to me. I was so tired that night!

Thursday was another stressful day in the 2 year old class. When I left school my boss told me to go get Starbucks lol! So of course I did!

This week I also got stung by a wasp walking out my front door to take Archie for a walk. It hurt so bad! But the worst was 2 days later when it got swollen, red, warm, and itchy. Not fun.

It's been an adjustment for Archie not having us home all day. But he has done amazing! He goes into his crate while I'm gone and doesn't complain a bit. Such a sweet boy!

Now it's time for Fitness Friday! I had a great week of runs and workouts! I've gotten in 2 strength training workouts this week!!! So proud of myself since it was such a busy first week of school!

So that was my week of runs and workouts! I'm pretty pleased considering we were all trying to get back into the routine of school and work! And I'm so glad I got in more than one session of strength training this week!

Tomorrow I will be running 7-8 miles for half marathon training. I'm hoping for another slow and easy run! I need to be sure to slow my pace to ensure a great run!

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Well y'all! Half marathon training has officially begun! I put it off for as long as I could but with my race coming up on October 16th it is time to train!

I'm not gonna lie. I so did not want to run this long run this week. I'm so not motivated to train right now. It is just so hot and humid. But I made myself. I like bling too much lol! Gotta run those races!

I got out there early to try and beat the heat. But at 5:45am it was already a feels like temperature of 86 degrees with 86% humidity! What???!!! That made it even harder to get out there. But I'm one stubborn girl who doesn't quit so I stepped out the door!

The best thing about running early....seeing the sunrise!!! It was so pretty!!!

My goal for this run (as it is for every long run) was to slow my pace. It's so hot and that makes it so tough to run distance. I decided to run around a 9:00 pace.

And that made the run so much more enjoyable! Even though I had dreaded the run...I really enjoyed it since I slowed down!

The miles flew by! And before I knew it...7 miles was done!!!!! Yay!!!

I'm very thankful for such a good run! It was just what I needed to start my training!

Monday, August 22, 2016

Happy Monday, happy 9th birthday to my sweet Sawyer, and happy first day of school for us! What a day!!! I am sad to see the summer end but excited about the new school year! I'm hoping both me and my boys have a great first day back!

This weekend we didn't do a whole lot. I was hoping the days would last longer than they did!

Saturday morning was the first week of half marathon training! I ran 7 miles! I'll tell you more about my run this week!

Archie also had his first play date at the dog park with my friend Lora's dogs. But....Archie wasn't very nice to the other dogs. He was very aggressive....growling and barking and showing his teeth at them. We were shocked! He's so sweet to people! It makes me wonder what happened to him in the 2 years before we got him poor thing. I'm hoping eventually he will learn to like other dogs. Any suggestions?

Andy had to keep the leash on him at the dog park because of how aggressive he was being.

After the traumatic dog park activity we had some lunch and then went to Lora's house to swim. It was a fun afternoon!

Sunday morning I ran and then watched the men's Olympic Marathon! I was so sad that Meb had a tough race. But I was so happy that Galen Rupp won the bronze medal for the USA!!! So amazing watching these amazing athletes! I've so enjoyed the Olympics and I'm so sad they are over! What are we gonna watch on TV now??!!

The rest of Sunday was spent getting ready for the first week of school. I also went birthday shopping for Sawyer!

That afternoon we met my sister-in-law at the park for some last minute summer fun!

For dinner we headed to the Brendel's house for an end of the summer dinner! And Kirstin baked Sawyer cupcakes for his birthday so we had an early birthday celebration! Fun!!!

Now it's time for the Weekly Chase! It's a new week and I have new goals to achieve! I hope you will link up your own goals with me too! And feel free to use the badge below in your post too! You can grab the badge HERE! :-)

Here are my goals from last week!

Goal #1: Run every day! Yes! And what is so cool....my run streak days go right along with the month...for example today is 8/22 and also day 822 of my streak! ;-)

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. 50% I did a little better this week but not every day like I need to be.

Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories. Yes!

Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week. Yes! This will get harder now that school is starting and I won't get to take my morning walk.

Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles. No. But this will change this week since I won't have time in the mornings to run as far.

Goal #6: Take at least one walk this week. Yes! I took a walk after my runs every morning!

Goal #7: Strength train at least 2 times this week. 50%. I got in one day of strength training.

Goal #8: Start crate training Archie. We got the crate and have started putting his treats in there. But we haven't locked him in yet.

Goal #9: Finish up everything in my classroom and for back to school. Yes! I'm ready for the first day!

Goal #10: Birthday shop for Sawyer. Yes!

Here are my goals for this week!

Every week goals:

Goal #1: Run every day!

Goal #2: Roll, stretch, and ice daily. Goal #3: Maintain my weight by logging my calories.Goal #4: Move 11,000 steps or more each day this week.Goal #5: Run at least 1 run under 2 miles.Goal #6: Take at least one walk this week.Goal #7: Strength train at least 2 times this week.

Goal #8: Survive the first week of school and getting back into a routine. Since we now have a dog to consider I've got to manage my time in the morning before work since I will need to make sure he goes potty before I leave. We don't have a fenced in yard (yet...hoping we get one soon) so this will involve walking him before I leave.

Goal #9: Make Sawyer's birthday as special as I can considering it's on the first day of school. Such a busy day but I want to make sure he gets the special birthday he deserves!

So that's my plan for this week. It's mainly going to be about getting us all back into a routine and fitting everything I want to do (run and strength train) in. I hope you all have a great week!